Redskins Ask Fans to Push Back on DC Council Vote on Team’s Name

Dan Snyder is asking fans of his football team to blast the e-mail accounts and jam the phone lines at the DC Council today ahead of a vote on a resolution denouncing the team’s name, even though the resolution is toothless and merely represents a “sense of the Council” that the term “Redskins” is derogatory.

The resolution will easily pass with a majority of council members signed on as co-sponsors, but the NFL team isn’t taking the empty admonishment without a fight. “As a resident of DC and a constituent, we encourage you to share with your DC City Councilmembers what #RedskinsPride means to you, your family and friends,” the team wrote in an e-mail to fans and season ticket holders today.

The council’s resolution has no authority over the team, of course, but it is a strongly phrased rejection of the club’s imagery. “Washington’s name has been dishonored by association with the word ‘Redskins,’” the document reads. The team’s plea for fans to call their council members follows on an open letter last month from Snyder in which he defended the team’s 81-year-old name.

So far, the effort hasn’t materialized into a flood of correspondence, says Karen Sibert, spokeswoman for council chairman Phil Mendelson.

Read the team’s full e-mail:

On Tuesday, the DC City Council will be discussing the Redskins name. As a resident of DC and a constituent, we encourage you to share with your DC City Councilmembers what #RedskinsPride means to you, your family and friends. Let the DC City Council hear from you directly: call, fax, email, or tweet your opinion directly to the councilmembers. Please forward this to other DC Redskins fans so that they can have their voices heard as well. Note: while the DC City Council has no authority to force any name change for the team, it’s still important for them to hear from you!

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.